One More Thing I Was Wrong About: Bernie Would’ve Won

Fidelity to an antiquated, fatally flawed electoral college system that violates every tenet of one-person, one-vote.

Active voter suppression efforts in key Southern states.

Russian hacking.

Fake news.

James Comey.

But we were also wrong.

So, so wrong.

***

When Donald Trump announced his candidacy, a couple of friends and I engaged in a long-running email laughfest that treated him as the joke we thought he truly was. Surely, such an obviously uninformed, narcissistic buffoon and royalist billionaire had zero chance of becoming president, but we would at least enjoy the comic value of his candidacy while it lasted.

So, so wrong.

On the other side of the aisle, Bernie Sanders rode some of the same heat of anti-establishment rhetoric as did Trump, but with the key difference that he was actually informed and articulate. Sanders held a kind of romantic appeal to Democratic voters and also disaffected Independents, very few of whom, I think, had any serious reservations about who he was as a person and what he represented.

The problem was, he’s a socialist, albeit a “democratic” one, and socialists don’t become presidents of the United States.

But then neither do uninformed, narcissistic buffoons and royalist billionaires.

So, so wrong.

And now, after I and many millions of others placed the ‘safe’ primary election bet on Hillary that turned out to be utterly perilous, we face the indignity and danger of a narcissist and demagogue of unparalleled scope assuming the presidency of the United States.

In retrospect, 2016 turned out to be a post-ideological election, voters going Obama’s “change” theme quite a few measures better by wanting to uproot the entire Washington establishment. Seems they were dead set on abolishing customs and norms that had delivered relatively safe, vetted, traditionalist presidential candidates into the oval office since the George Washington administration.

However much our presidents have varied on policy matters and ideology, they have represented a certain kind of professional political class that voters in recent years have increasingly grown to disdain.

This is why so many working class voters expressed willingness to slide from Sanders to Trump and vice versa, a remarkable crossover that baffled anyone who paid attention to the candidates’ policy proposals and character, which could not have been more Venus-and-Mars different. But it wasn’t about policy or character as such for the disaffected, un- and under-employed masses. It was about revolutionizing a system that no longer worked for them.

Which meant that the two candidates talking serious revolution—Trump and Sanders—were music to their ears.

As the campaign developed, the Real Clear Politics aggregate of polls matching Sanders against Trump showed Sanders with a consistent 9-13-point advantage, a point he tried his best to emphasize on the campaign trail. But it fell on deaf ears to voters like me. I simply never believed Sanders was electable, just as I never believed the Republican Party could possibly nominate Trump, much less elect him in November.

So, so wrong.

***

There’s no way to prove this now short of hopping into H.G. Wells’s time machine or onto the set of The Twilight Zone, but I think Sanders would have gone on to beat Trump, just as all the polls were indicating. I was clearly wrong about where America was headed and what deep emotion and need roiled beneath the surface of our electoral politics.

And were that to have occurred, today would see Wall Street hedge fund managers and industrial polluters fretting with at least some of the same worry and fear that virtually all Democrats are experiencing.

Perhaps I should have realized as much when Sanders—a socialist!!…in the United States!!—exhibited the staying power that he did, easily matching Trump on the other side for the sheer surprise factor of his long-running candidacy. Something was going on there, and I didn’t know what it was.

Tone deaf, is what I was.

And now, after I and many millions of others placed the “safe” primary election bet on Hillary that turned out to be utterly perilous, we face the indignity and danger of a narcissist and demagogue of unparalleled scope assuming the presidency of the United States. A person whom Sanders, clearly not a demagogue but definitely an idealist, would have trounced, given his fundamental decency, persistent voice for upending the established economic order, and ability to tap into much the same disaffection that fueled Trump’s rise and ultimate triumph.

There are more than a few lessons in all of this for those of us who have hewed to a faith in the essential moderateness of presidential politics as they have historically been practiced. We live in immoderate times, for many more reasons than we have time to enumerate here.

Playing it safe, as Hillary and the majority of Democratic primary voters did along with her, caused us all to go over the cliff together in a fearsome debacle. Clearly, that safe bet and equivocation didn’t answer to the needs of this time.

Which brings us to Donald Trump as the 45th president, and the lamentations accompanying that stark reality on this inaugural day.

My only response at the moment is that the 46th can’t come soon enough, and it is incumbent upon all of us who feel that way to be positively immoderate in doing everything possible to make it so.

Amber waves of grain, rural Ohio, by Steve Wall

***

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14 comments to One More Thing I Was Wrong About: Bernie Would’ve Won

January 20, 2017 at 8:15 am

James Malinsays:

I must grudgingly admit that you are correct in your assessment. I was blinded to the reality that a large swath of the US really HATED Hillary (a visceral hated similar to the hatred I feel for Trump), and were probably more amenable to a kindly Bernie, regardless of any policy or principle concerns. This was all about identity politics, personality politics, and sadly had nothing to do with qualifications for the highest office in the land. Now all we have is the fun of calling Trump names, making fun of his personnel decisions, and laughing at his blatant inability to perform the job. Seems a pretty hollow scrap considering “what could have been”. Again, although others tell me not to despair, I’m afraid my head is in my hands every time I think of politics these days. Hope is gone.

Having just suffered though the inaugural pageantry and a speech so unrelentingly dark about the current state of our country that I was checking my address to make sure it didn’t say “North Korea” at the end, I am tempted to feel equally hopeless, James, but then I remember: 1) that would be playing right into Trump & Company’s hands; they’d like nothing better than for us to leave hope behind, and 2) the question of what kind of country we have and what kind of world we hand on to our children has always been full of struggle and strife. So if those slaves found a way to sing in the fields a mere 150 years ago, I had better be whistlin’ up my own tune here from the comparative lap of luxury and freedom I enjoy. Eternal vigilance, my friend, and please take note: tomorrow there will be one day gone and one less to go of the Trump administration…

It was around four or five months ago that something in my head began an ongoing uncomfortable buzz. I think it was an instinctual alarm that my horse was beginning to lose momentum and appeal. Like many, I was so comfortable and certain that it was not possible for a narcissist like Trump to win the office of President of the United States of America. I let myself believe that if Trump’s own racist and vitriolic message didn’t sink him, the people of the U.S. were too committed to equality, human rights, and conscious to fall for his propaganda of selfishly putting down our nation’s deep faith in equality for all people. The very idea that Hillary Clinton may lose the race for president was almost too awful to think about. Then the depression and anxiety set in.

How could America survive the leadership of such a rageful, racist, and ego driven individual? Today, I watched the inauguration, off and on. I hoped that maybe Trump’s cold and indifferent attitude toward people of color, Muslims, and hand in hand relationship with the Evangelical/Fundamentalist community might soften. But, Trump didn’t offer the slightest indication that he had any intention of backing off of his draconian plans to make America racist and isolationist again.

Today is a day of mourning, for me. I mourn for my children and grandchildren, who will suffer the effects of Trump’s desire to return to a culture of white supremacy. I mourn for people of color who will suffer the effects of Trump’s determination to get his way no matter what the cost it may impose on others. Most of all, I mourn that someone like Trump will take the reins of the such a noble and great attempt by a nation to remain and maintain such a remarkable and virtuous standard of life for its citizens. Good night sweet world leader of nations (at least for four years) who tried to maintain a standard of life that held the human rights and dignity of each individual to be inalienable to every person.

I am in full agreement with James. I too grossly underestimated the hatred for Hillary, even though I observed it up close with a friend and a few relatives. I was blinded by the disbelief that a man like Trump could be elected. Bernie, socialist and all, would have engendered more trust than Hillary and may have prevailed. But, alas. . . I was heartened, somewhat, by Pres. O’s comment about he and Michelle managed to quell fears and disgust of Trump for their daughters. He said, “We told them it is not the end of the world, until it is the end of the world.” Time for all of us to be vigilant, courageous, and to remember our family and friendships as the core of our country.

Hey James, this is hate speech you are putting out here. I thought you did not approve of hate speech.
Obama on 60 Minutes last Sunday at the end of his interview said, “we are going to be just fine.” He would know better than the rest of us.
I am sorry if hope is gone for you. Let’s peek at local leader from the other side and see what they say about hope:
The chairman of the Sonoma County Republicans said in the Press Democrat on Monday: “I hope the Trump presidency will restore reason and fairness to discussions about issues like immigration.”
Hope is not gone. All we are saying……. is give hope a chance.
We do all know that hate speech is not the answer.

Rev Gutleben, as David Brooks wrote earlier today, it may just be that we need an opponent to rally and coalesce a sense of unity that could dissipate destructive partisan bickering. “Opponents” typically come from the outside. While Trump may not be an opponent in the traditional sense of the word, he is dangerous and will require monitoring and constant vigilance to hold his wild impulses in check for the safety of our country and planet. This need to contain him may just be what is needed to evolve toward a post-partisan era of American politics. At least, we can hope.

Mary seems to be the only person in this thread that has any common sense. Everybody is crying in their soup now, saying that the end of the world is coming, and they can’t wait for four more years. And that we are more racist now. This is all nonsense. Everybody is writing so eloquently which shows that you have a reasonable level of intelligence, but you say things so unintelligent it needs to be pointed out.

If you look at where we are today versus where we were eight years ago, this country has not been more racist since the Civil Rights era. Obama did not do anything to bring us together but rather allowed us to divide and sat on the sidelines and watched. He fueled much of that by doing nothing.

The fact of the matter is, all I hear is people whining rather than suggesting that we at least give him a chance and see how it turns out. Every one of you, who voted for Obama in 2008, wanted everybody to give him a chance, despite his absolute lack of experience. Well we saw what he did, and obviously at least you will all be in agreement that we are much worse off now. Facts don’t lie.

Quite frankly it does excite me to hear everybody talk about losing faith and giving up, if you did, then you would be so disheartened that you would not go to the polls in four years thus giving the Republicans an opportunity to actually fix everything that was broken.

Think of the pompous, arrogant attitudes of Obama, Pelosi, and Reid back when they thought they could do anything and nobody could stop them. Vote before you read it…imbeciles. As a matter of fact Reid was such an imbecile, he actually rewrote part of our process in an effort to roll over the Republicans because he was so confident that Hillary would win. Now, thank you to that moron, we only need 51 votes in the Senate to confirm somebody. That backfired!

True I do believe Sanders would have beaten Trump. And despite being a socialist was actually better suited to be president than just about anybody up there. But instead Democrats decided to back the most flawed and horrible candidate in the last century. As soon as Hillary won the nomination I laughed realizing it’s all over for the Democrats. There is no way she could have ever emerged victorious. Ever. She was possibly the worst candidates to run for the office of President.

So I suggest the Democrats now take a good look at why so many people turned away from them, try to spew love and not hate, and wait and see how it turns out. I believe you will be pleasantly surprised.

And before speaking ill of the Electoral College, which is obviously the only way a nation like ours could vote for a president, and anybody who thinks a straight popular vote would be better needs to understand the system better, I suggest all Democrats fix their own party’s flawed system. It did not matter how anybody voted in the primaries, with this ridiculous idea of superdelegates Hillary was slated to win the entire time. It was comical to see the debates and the speeches and people think that they had an opportunity to select a candidate. The worst and most flawed election procedure in any country is the concept of a super delegate.

You should concentrate your powers and your energy on fixing the way Democrats nominate presidential candidates so that the people can decide who they want. Just imagine, if for one moment, the country was run that way? Imagine, no matter who voted for whom, some powerful people in Washington would decide who would truly become president. Ridiculous…

Rick, besides the absurd claim that no one on this thread except Mary has any “common sense,” which you appear to define as “anyone who doesn’t agree with me,” let me focus on these points, in no particular order of importance:

1. Don’t worry, I ain’t giving up. Nor are the millions of people you’ll see take to the streets today in a show of anti-Trump solidarity. I’ll be among them, and this is just the beginning…

2. I’d be perfectly happy to “give Trump a chance” if he would have shown the least little softening and inclusion in his consistently harsh and derogatory rhetoric that, regrettably, did not end with his victory. His speech yesterday was just a continuation of his campaign, sketching an unrecognizable wasteland of a country that he alone can save, while he skewered the four living presidents who sat near him, along with the entire Congress he will be working with, for their avarice, greed and robbing of the “people” he claims to represent with such untiring nobility. Nice! This, the guy whose multiple bankruptcies while he continued to live in opulence robbed thousands of working people of the wages due them. “Champion of the working class” indeed!

3. Don’t even get me started on his cabinet picks: two Goldman Sachs billionaires (the common touch!), an energy secretary who didn’t know the first thing about the department he is about to run, a surgeon who admitted he had no idea how to run a federal department in declining a cabinet position but then consented anyway to become the chief housing officer of the land, an EPA head dedicated to protecting the commercial interests of polluters, the country’s chief education official who has never worked in a classroom nor any other educational capacity besides contributing multi-millions of dollars to anti-public schools voucher campaigns (and to Trump himself, of course). Trump is casting his die with each pick, and the colors are alarmingly dark. What a “chance” he had to show some ideological balance and respect for expertise with prudent cabinet picks! Opportunity not merely lost, but scorned. I see where he’s going with all this, and I oppose almost every part of it.

4. “…obviously at least you will all be in agreement that we are much worse off now. Facts don’t lie.” This is funny. Are you talking about “facts” such as inheriting an economy on the precipice of a worldwide Depression? Then the working through that to 72 consecutive months of job growth, the greatest ever on record? A cleaner environment, expanded wilderness and parklands, the rise of clean and ever cheaper alternative energies? A near tripling of the stock market? By far the most robust and expensive military in the world, no matter what Trump dreams up to say in his ongoing stream of self-referential consciousness? Those kinds of facts?

5. Given your prescience and certainty that Hillary was a laughably bad candidate doomed to lose, did you also foresee she would do so despite winning the actual election by 2.8 million votes? Just wondering if your predictive powers extended that far.

6. The Electoral College is a sham, built on the backs of slaves and the 3/5 of a person they represented so the slaveholding states could pad their electoral total. It violates a fundamental principle of fairness: that every vote should count equally. In California, 4.4 million Trump voters got zero for their vote. They didn’t count. In Texas, nearly 3.9 million Clinton voters: disenfranchised. Almost worse: in the allotment of electoral votes vis a vis population. Wyoming voters count for 3.8 people, while Californians count for 0.8. (https://public.tableau.com/en-us/s/gallery/electoral-college-disproportionate-elements) In what way do you consider that fair? When I hear the argument that popular vote election would mean candidates spend all their time in big states, I ask, “Do you know when was the last time a general election candidate came to California for anything except a fundraiser?” Right now, they spend all their time in a handful of swing states that determine the election. It’s wrong, in every way.

7. Perhaps your most egregious claim, if I have properly understood the ambiguous sentence in which it was couched, is that the country is more racist now than when Obama took office, and that is because he divided us and just watched while the country split open. That’s worth an entire essay itself, but I would only say to you that the election of a black man in this country represented both a significant leap forward in healing racial relations and ALSO unleashed the hounds of a hellish racism that had grown quieter over the years but had, all too obviously, never gone away. With Obama’s election, it grew desperate and emboldened, crawling out of its hole with fury and irrational hatred. (All of it helped along by a media age of easy access for bigots of every stripe. Surely you espied at least some of the ugliness that has been spewing all across the Internet regarding Obama for the past eight years.) Our current president also helped propel these dark impulses by clinging to his absurd and disproven birther stance about Obama, until he decided it wasn’t useful to him anymore just a few months ago. Reprehensible, is what that was. But given Trump’s essential just-get-a-deal-done-and-win amorality, totally in line with his history and character.

Right now, I am taking heart that today represents one less day of the Trump administration, and onwards we go…

So, so wrong… Tone deaf = exactly right
In response to “Rick” you say
1) “In a show of anti-Trump solidarity” with absolutely no evidence of any failures. How open minded you Libs are and quite patriotic to wish for your president to fail on day one
2) So you have conditions on giving people a chance, quite the humanitarian you are. That did not end with his victory… did you not see his victory speech or meeting with Obama or his 60 minutes interview or his shout out to Hillary at the luncheon? Shewed the presidents.. Did you not hear Obama’s speech and 8 years of bashing and blaming Bush? How about Obama inviting the Reps leadership to the White House and then humiliate them with “I Won” in a very dictator like narcissistic arrogant way he belittled them and then double down with threats of “I have a phone and a Pen” low the king has spoken. The entire congress 8% approval rating need to be shewed all of them. BTW as to giving someone a chance I will note that you penned this letter on Jan 20th, 2017 so my question is did you wait at least until after he was sworn in to post this letter? And how long after he was sworn in did it take you to despise the new President enough that “the 46th can’t come soon enough”? Man you’d think we instantly turned into Aleppo or someplace worse. Also wonderful patriotism to encourage “ALL of us to feel that way and doing everything possible to make it so” Imagine if you spent all your efforts in helping this or any president succeed how great our nation could really be.
3) Cabinet picks… Energy Sec a successful Gov of Texas, how bankrupt is Calif? A surgeon… You mean an extremely intelligent world renown brain surgeon who is tapped to be Sec of Housing and Urban Development maybe quite possibly the most experienced and qualified person to ever over see this Dept. A black man to be raised in a gov’t housing project in inner city Detroit by a single black mom and was able to rise up out of poverty and despair to become the head guy to try and get others out of the same circumstance he actually grew up in. Yeah what does he know about poverty to brain surgeon. Sec of education who has never worked in a classroom… that is task to turn the education decision BACK to the local levels and out of DC. Oh I don’t know so that the people who work in the classrooms who know best in their schools, what a novel concept. An advocate of school vouchers because the inner city schools have such a proven track record of success right? Funny all the wealthy including the Obama’s kids go to private schools that the poor can never attend mainly because they oppose school vouchers. And why do they oppose school vouchers is it because they don’t work, no it’s because they are beholden to the teacher unions, way to look out for the kids. Competition breeds success and your idea like the rest of Libs is throw more money at failed policies, that is the definition of insanity. Sec of State a man that is successfully running the 8th largest company in the world dealing with world leaders every day, yeah what does he know about dealing with foreigners? Sec of Def a retired highly respected 4 star general here again what does he know about the military? Alarmingly dark, respect for expertise…. Yeah a junior senator from Ill and his gang had soooo much experience and expertise right? Sen Sessions a truly honorable man has had his good name and reputation trashed simply for political gain. He in the Deep South prosecuted the head of the KKK while your party supported the kkk and he helped segregate the schools etc and he is being called a racist how dare your party. Your party is acting despicable in this instance and their rhetoric is absolutely Deplorable you ought to be ashamed of yourselves. He has been re-elected for over 20 years in the Deep South and never a complaint of racism until he was nominated to become the AG. He has hired and nominated very capable people to very high positions as State AG and in his office that happened to be black, my close friend is one of them, the number two person in his office. Nikki Haley his new UN Ambassador has been a very successful Governor and showed INCREDIBLE leadership in healing her state after the Charleston shooting. She was unanimously praised for her sensitivity, calmness, strength and compassion which are exactly the traits we need at the UN wouldn’t you agree. A women of Indian and immigrant decent. You oppose almost every part simply because he is a republican and you’re an ideologue period. It seems that you like most ideologues from both sides are intellectually in able to give the opposing side ANY credit for any accomplishment or success. Wait and see if ay of these fail then no problem that’s fair game but until then why not relax and wait and see and maybe cheer the home team since this is where we live.
4) Inheriting an economy… You mean when both Pres Bush and Sen McCain are on record (Youtube all of this) as saying the housing paper and policies are a recipe for disaster? Followed by Dem Sen Dodd and Dem Rep Frank said everything is peachy even up to about 2 weeks before the bubble THEY endorsed crashed. Let’s go back to the lending laws that were changed by Pres Carter and then loosened even more recklessly by Pres Clinton so that more low income people could buy a home. The problem was they couldn’t afford it but hey no beggie loan then money anyway. WARNING Bush the train is going to derail one day and derail big we have to stop this. Meanwhile the drunkards in Frank and Dodd (who btw were in the Top 5 in receiving donations by Fannie Mea and Freddie Mac two others Obama and Clinton) are partying like freshmen on prom night and BOOM the bubble crashes and ALL the Intellectually Dishonest Libs blame Bush, sure why not. So Obama inherited his own parties disastrous and reckless legislation. Record job growth hahaha, please quit playing the ridiculous bait and switch game. Fact look at the number of people on welfare prior to Obama and now and you’ll find millions more on welfare now. Look at the Dept of Labor statistics and you’ll find the Labor participation rate is the lowest in 40+ years. So when a person falls off the unemployment rolls because they have gone 99 weeks or more without a job or they just give up your party counts that a job creation. A cleaner environment at the expense of thousands of those jobs people once had but are now on welfare because of crippling regulations. Tripling of the stock market… more three card monte here. The stock market was bouncing around 14k and your parties housing lending laws caused the market to crash so technically it looks like Obama took over at like 7k and it was flirting around 15-16K until Trump won and then it has experienced 20+ record highs (Because of Trump and today because of his policies the market is hopeful and broke 20k for the first time, you’re welcome) so technically it is about 18-19k and you’ll take all the credit right? By the way unless that is some new Liberal math that would be doubling not tripling but nice try. Most robust military that is actually incredibly understaffed, over worked and behind in many aspects one of which is the modernization of our ships.
5) Winning the election by 2.8 million votes. Just goes to show you how ideological your party is. They would rather vote for their party and not their country. She is the most corrupt person to ever run for president and your party still celebrates her. Here private server alone has put hundreds of Americans serving in the intel world and our military all because she wanted to have NO accountability period. Her self-centered and sense of entitlement mentality chose intentionally to further her career then the security and national secrets. If her name wasn’t Clinton she would have gone to jail for certain. She has been proven to lie her entire career starting as a young unethical attorney working on Watergate through her being stripped of her law license just like Bill until bold face lying about Benghazi and her private email server and only wanting one device to check her emails etc. Sir Edmund Hillary to landing under sniper fire she is dishonest and corrupt to the very core. Intentionally trying to destroy all Bill’s sexapades for her career, both of them are utterly disgusting people who have sold our nation out for their personal financial gain. From cow futures to the Lincoln bedroom to the Clinton Foundation they have been pay to play from the get go. How do two people who have been in “Public Service” their entire lives almost become worth over $200 million dollars if not for corrupt to the core. Don’t even get me started here
6) Electoral College violates the fundamental principle of fairness. You’re joking right? Fairness how is doing away with it make it more fair? So then LA and NY will decide who our president is and that is fair. It fundamentally is fair, don’t you get it? Every state matters because of it and one or two states can’t dictate to the rest of the nation there list of demands. Trump won more cities, counties, states and EC votes how can it get any fairer then that? It is only fair if your guy wins right? It cracks me up that the same Libs crying about the EC are crying that Trump is going to be a dictator. Taking away the EC will bring us to the edge of dictatorship but heaven forbid we actually critically think our arguments out. They don’t come to Calif not because of the EC it’s because of the corruption the in the party systems and rules. The parties are rigging the results don’t you get it? Like Trump said Berney NEVER had a chance. He was far more popular and his supporters were far more enthusiastic but the DNC actively undermined his campaign and with super delegates it really didn’t matter because the fix was in before the contest started. If cracks me up how so many Libs are pissed at how “unfair” the EC is but have no problem with super delegates which are only there to prevent actual democracy from working. Trump loses in the DNC because of super delegates. They spend their time in states based on 1st the primary calendar and then swing states. You got to win to get money and to keep going. Calif, Texas are too late on the calendar so we never have a chance because of that, not because of the EC.
7) Your right it would take an entire essay. But if you think Obama hasn’t spent his 8 years dividing our nation you are truly a fool. Black vs white, inviting BLM to the White House but not even lighting the House up in Blue to support the police. The last line of defense to keep our nation from imploding, yet he can light it up in a rainbow. Demonizing Christians and their religious beliefs against the LGBTQ community or Muslims. “Everyone needs to pay their fair share” was the war between rich vs poor. I can go on and on here. At every turn he had the opportunity to bring our nation together and untie like his inspirational speeches he gave about hope and change. But no empty speeches his actions and sometimes inactions spoke louder than words over and over again for 8 years. To say that Trevon Martin would like his son or in Ferguson to meet with the protestors that burned the city down saying “keep up the good fight” was utterly disgusting because the narrative of Trevon and Ferguson were LIES! That officer can never work again in law enforcement and he was found COMPLETELY RIGHTEOUS by the US Justice Dept. and Obama left him like the rest of the law enforcement community hanging period. If we aren’t more divided then why do all the race baiters and the Dems keep saying we are? Our country is NOT racist period but they would have you believe we were and that too is a LIE.
8) Finally although I think he might have had a chance I don’t believe in the end Berney would have won. Far too many people have rejected the Liberalism and socialist vision. Since Obama and his agenda have been in place the Democrats have lost 12 Governor houses, 63 US House seats 10 US Senate seats, and 948 state legislative seats, that is a shellacking of monumental proportions or how do you say it unparalleled scope. Your party has been set back 100 years since the 1920’s that it has been this bad and the sad thing is you guys still don’t understand why. Well to steal a great movie line because “you can’t handle the truth”. The socialist vision has failed since the beginning of time and the most recent experiment in Europe has led to Brexit i.e. everyone is rejecting your parties failed vision and policies. But if you really want to know why your party lost to Trump it really isn’t that hard to understand. The problem is although you (you meaning the Liberal mindset not you personally) claim diversity, acceptance and tolerance that is only of the skin or people it is not of thought or ideas. Just listen to how you speak or watch how you treat people. There is always a condescending tone and snarky disrespectful comments, coupled with arrogance and mockery sprinkled with elitism and a sense that you truly believe you are the smartest people around. A conservative is not allowed an honest dialogue because we are deaminized, shouted down, mocked, belittled, and named called like racist, bigot, homophobe, sexist, etc. I listen to Libs that are confused as to how or why they lost to Trump and when I try to explain they argue with me still defending their loss. Look when I was in school when I got test questions wrong I went to someone who got the question right AND I didn’t argue with them. Mainly because they got it RIGHT and I didn’t. I will be willing to bet you are going to opine as to how I am wrong and if your parties message was just articulated more or better or if the voter just understood (passive aggressive put down i.e. the voter is not as smart as we also elitist). Remember Obama saying that basically the “fly over states” that we just “cling to our guns and religion”? Yeah well those are put downs and we don’t like it. Just because we didn’t go to Harvard doesn’t mean we are stupid and once your party figures that out you might win a seat or two back. See that was more division by the President of Costal states vs the HEARTland. Every turn he divided us but hey isn’t that straight out of the play book of “Rules for Radicals” and Sal Alinsky tactics? Look how you framed this article you start with describing Trump as “such an obvious uninformed, narcissistic buffoon and royalist billionaire” you repeat it later in the post. Now look at my advice and dissect your sentence; Obvious = if you can’t see it you’re stupid and not as enlighten as all of those who can see. Uninformed = stupid (how he got to the billionaire status must have been all luck right? And just for kicks let’s throw in some personal attacks while I’m at it “narcissistic” and my favorite “buffoon” which must be after Bill and Hillary attended his wedding right? Because attending a known actual racist, bigot, homophobe, sexist, Zionists and so on wedding wouldn’t look good on the political resume now would it? You admit at the beginning you and your likeminded friends found it laughable, more of that condescending elitists mentality. Now contrast it with one of your parties guys. “Sanders held a kind of romantic appeal to Democratic voters” and you say he is “fundamentally decent” imagine if your party actually just that. Your party constantly calls for things like his death or physical harm etc and laugh about it, absolutely disgusting behavior. And in case your word picture of a wonderful Disney movie didn’t paint a beautiful picture of Sanders you add that the “key” difference between Trump and Sanders is he is “actually informed AND articulate. Well as a person who has made a little something out of myself starting my company at 22 I would debate you on how “informed” he really was. See Trump is and uninformed person who became a billionaire yet Sanders with all of his knowledge and information lived at his mom’s house until like he was in his forty’s without a job and then worked as a politician. And apparently he isn’t that informed because while the rest of his fellow politicians have made millions, like the Clintons, as a politician he is relatively poor. Go back and look at the difference between how Liberals and the media portray Conservatives vs Liberals. Reagan, Bush, Quayle, Bush, Trump, Palin, etc, all idiots, buffoons, stupid, can read or spell the big words, etc. Versus any liberal smart, brilliant, articulate, quite impressive, etc. I can explain more of why your party lost but I don’t really think anyone on this thread cares or believes me. More than likely you’re laughing at me and thinking how ignorant I am, maybe a PM like “can you believe this guy what an idiot” or maybe now I am a racist or something like that. Just a word of advice your party is trying to double down with their horrible choices for DNC Chairperson like they did with putting Pelosi back in your party leadership. I would suggest finding a DNC Chair that isn’t so rabid and try not to go further left, I suspect this advice will be ignored and the Republicans will win even more seats. Oh and try and root for our President’s success because we are all in this together, so unlike Liberals I personally would rather succeed as a country then just for my party.
Ron

Rick, I will suspend my offense of your attack on my lack of being thoughtful and say only this: there can be no thoughtful or meaningful dialog with you and those like you who place no value on facts such as those commonly recognized and enumerated by Andrew. Your very argument/diatribe reinforces the dangerous “know-nothing” and “believe-nothing” thinking that trickles down from our new president. There is absolutely no ground in this mindset from which to sustain a civilized existence.

My articulate and courteous classmates Andrew and Jay have rebutted your scree nicely, I think…there is little I can add in words. I agree with Jay completely that attempting to to have a discussion with folks like Rick is impossible, so I am not going to try. I would say that in my own primitive way, I wouldn’t mind a face to face encounter…just sayin’

James, you seem to be channeling your inner lineman in that sign-off, but I’m going to have to assess you a penalty and loss of down if it persists. We maintain a peace-loving, health-and-sanity-preserving (if occasionally heated) blog site here at Traversing, all in the spirit of trying to figure out what the hell it’s all about… (Insert smiley face here, which isn’t behaving and is presenting as a mere square instead.)

We all know that little voice inside our head which does the traffic direction or how to behave, what to say out loud, and what to simply hold in. Apparently that little voice was taking a break yesterday in the bald cranium of James. I am hoping the penalty is of the five yard, “running-into-the-kicker” type, rather than the 15 yard, personal foul, roughing the kicker type. I really meant nothing threatening…merely, with social media and Twitter, and all forms of anonymous electronic communication, people seem to say the most outrageous things…things they would not say if their mother, daughter, or even a passing stranger was present. Civility was crushed, and crudeness was legitimized by this new President we have. Face to face discourse seems to be dead.

Don’t get me wrong…sites like yours are great, and usually provoke thoughtful insights (exception being Rick). Without Facebook and blogging I would not be able to keep in contact with my oldest of friends, and that has been truly uplifting. I do mourn the loss of courtesy and civility, and most of all empathy.